These lines that connect us
by Red-Sugar-Rush113
Summary: Zuko and Katara love story. Not awfully ridiculous or terribly OOC. Written with proper english. Starts at the end of Avatar
1. A wanderer

Six grueling months of torturous search, my feet stung with every step I took towards home, once again returning with nothing but an ever despairing hope. I could feel the strain of the pack on my back, which felt almost as broken as the heart in my chest. I could see the edges of my palace, my awaiting fiancé waiting patiently inside no doubt. This brought me little comfort however, I was consumed in the desperation that had filled my soul since the veil had been shoved precariously off my eyes- since I had learned my mother was alive.

I was greeted like a king-which in some way, I suppose I am. Servants took my pack and coat, removing my burdens I could feel some strength surge back to the surface of my demeanor. I thanked them and pressed onward towards the bath. The steam from the water embraced the fervid blood in my veins, coaxing it into submission. I disrobed quickly and lowered myself into the water, from the bottoms of my dirt caked feet to my weathered face, and blew fire from my nostrils, heating the water to a near boil. I rinsed my filthy hair and watched the water turn a muddy brown color before the waves dispersed it. My body relaxed within the bath, allowing my muscles the long-awaited break they'd longed for. I focused so intently on scrubbing the filth from my tortured body that I didn't notice Mai enter.

"Zuko, we have guests…" she whispered in my ear. I jumped at the intrusion.

"Mai, I'm currently bathing, if you didn't notice." I snapped.

"No luck then? Oh Zuko, I do wish you'd give these frivolous pursuits up. I think maybe it's time you recognized that she may be gone… besides, I get so lonely…" she nuzzled my ear affectionately.

"Leave." She sighed and did as I asked, she was aware of my temper, as were most of those close to me, though it only flared about this subject. It wasn't fair to her, she was right, I left for months at a time and she was alone. Then there was all the repairs that needed to be taken into consideration. As Firelord I should be more concerned, and I am. But I'm being selfish. Childish, even. I knew that. Mai knew that. Even Aang had warned me of it. But I needed to do this. No one understood. Not really.

I rose out of the bath to greet our guests.


	2. An angry outburst

I entered the room quietly, hoping to catch some of the faint whispers floating down the hall, but as soon as I reached the door they ceased, and I swore gently and entered.

"Good afternoon," I mumbled to them, nodding my head slightly to acknowledge Aang and Katara's presence.

"No luck?" Aang asked, clearly knowing the answer, he was one of the worst liars I've ever seen. Katara looked at me sympathetically. I snorted.

"Not even. I'm beginning to think he lied. But I've been in there a thousand and one times and not a single trace of deception has crossed his features. I don't know what else to do." I heaved myself onto a chair opposite the avatar and his girlfriend.

"I think he should give the whole endeavor up, but he never does listen to me." Mai huffed and crossed her arms.

I rolled my eyes and muttered something along the lines of what a good and caring fiancé she was while Aang and Katara looked increasingly uncomfortable.

"What was that? God, you're such a baby." Her voice rose an octave and Aang winced, keeping peace was his job after all.

"I'm a baby?" I asked, sarcastically dumbfounded, " Well, dearest, please, enlighten me on the ways of the grown and matured!"

"Maybe I would if you ever showed any promise of possessing that simple quality most of us have, what was it again? Oh yeah, listening!" She screamed right back.

"Well, I'm listening right now, care to elaborate on the ways of the world that I have so obviously misconstrued? Because we are all aware of her majesty's performance in all that is right and mature!"

"At least I don't have a mommy complex! At least I don't leave my fiancé or my country in search of the a dead woman! At least I have the decency to let you know where I am and not be as disgustingly construed in my values to place my dead mother's burial place ahead of the entire world's fate!"

"You think you know? You think you can even begin to understand?" I was fuming, words steamed out of my mouth without a thought as a left the room, slamming the door shut on my way out. I stomped down the hallway, ignoring the worried looks of servants I passed.


	3. A common thread

I shot into the gardens, searching for something to release my anger on. Anything alive I could kill. My anger fumed through my body, the blood scorching my insides. I could see my skin turning crimson streaks of veins. Fire-bending, when controlled in anger, was as detrimental to its owner as its victims.

**3rdPerson**

Katara slipped silently from the room as Mai began to cry. Soft sobs echoed in her throat and Aang felt himself inclined to assist her. Katara was more worried of what Zuko was doing. She glided through the hallways, glibly talking with the servants, coaxing them into giving up Zuko's whereabouts. She found him in the garden after talking to a particularly jolly laundry woman who laughed at Zuko's temper as though if was nothing.

**1rstPerson**

The fire raged inside me until I could no longer hold it within, I found myself spurting it upon the ocean blue flowers that bloomed so beautifully in the spring. Afterwards, I felt the anger dwell and the self resentment boil into shame.

"Now why would you do that?" Katara asked pointedly, raising her eyebrows. I had no answer, so I looked at my feet like a naughty child. She laughed, and her blue eyes sparkling, before she twisted open her water sack and emitted the life giving substance upon the dead flowers. I watched as the twisted and deranged formations gave way to lovely blossoms once more.

"Zuko…" She began, but I cut her off.

"I know, I should give up. I should let it go. But-" I tried futilely to explain myself, but this time she cut me off.

"I don't think so. Not at all." She spoke with a brimmed sadness, "After all, she's your mother. If my mother were alive, or even could possibly be alive, I wouldn't do a thing but search for her." She smiled at me with a sad smile. She knew the kind of loneliness the absence of a mother like no one I had ever known.

"Thank you." I whispered. She shrugged and left the gardens to their flowers and me to my thoughts.

That night Mai and I made up and made love. I felt empty.


End file.
